1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to dispensing and more particularly to an improved apparatus for dispensing a sheet material from a roll.
2. Background of the Invention
Various types of apparatuses have been proposed by the prior art for dispensing a sheet material from a role. Dispensers for dispensing a sheet material form a roll have been used in commercial as well as consumer applications. Among the most common sheet dispensers are the dispensers for dispensing a sheet of paper towels from a paper towel roll.
In a typical paper towel dispenser, a roll of paper towels is retained by a shaft extending through a core of the paper towel roll. The shaft is supported for enabling the paper towel roll to rotate on the shaft for dispensing paper towels thereby. In order to tear a sheet of the dispensed paper towel from the paper towel roll, the paper towel roll must be stopped from rotating about the shaft. Accordingly, dispensing of paper towels from the dispenser was a two-hand operation. One hand was required to inhibit rotation of the paper towel roll and one hand was required to tear the dispensed sheet of paper towel from a roll.
This two-handed operation was problematic when an operator had two soiled hands. The soiled hand required to inhibit rotation of the paper towel roll soiled the paper towels remaining on the paper towel roll. The following U.S. Patents are examples of attempts of the prior art to solve this problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,376 to F. A. Compton discloses a support for conventional roll of perforated paper towel including a base for mounting on a vertical or horizontal surface. A support rod is perpendicular to said base for holding the towel roll. A manually operable braking device impedes the unrolling of the towels when one is being torn off the roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,345 to J. Cotey discloses a portable dispenser for rolled paper products such as sheet material, comprising a base member and a cap member. The base is disc-shaped with an inwardly dished conical inner face. A centrally located upstanding retention means for non-rotatably engaging one end of the hollow inner core of a roll of sheet material, coaxial with the disc, projects from this inner face. An upstanding flange encircles the circumference of the disc, encasing one axial end of a roll of towels. The disc-like base has a flat, smooth outer face having a centrally located pivot on which the base member will rotate. The cap member is also disc-shaped with an inwardly dished conical inner face. A centrally located upstanding retention means for non-rotatably engaging the opposite end of the hollow inner core of the roll of sheet material projects from this inner face of the cap member. An upstanding knob or handle with an optional closed top projects from the outer face of the cap. The base member can be placed on any horizontal support surface so that the towel roll is held vertically. With one hand grasping or pushing down on the upstanding knob of the cap member, towel sheets may be pulled from the roll with the other hand. The entire dispenser assembly rotates about the center axis on the pivot of the base member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,053 to R. F. Vance discloses a holder for a roll of paper which has a base shaped to prevent tipping over and which is provided with an upstanding pole for holding a roll of paper in place between a cap and the base. Upstanding parallel spaced guides guide the sheets of paper for removal and impeding material is placed on the base and pole to impede removal of the sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,385 to R. Bell discloses a dispensing device including a base having an upstanding post with a gripping means on the upper end biased to a first position and movable to a second position. The hollow post telescopingly receives a roll of articles separated into individual segments and the gripping means can be pushed from the first position to frictionally grip the roll between the base and the gripping means so that the article can easily be separated from the roll without any rotation of the roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,179 to M. Morano discloses a dispenser for dispensing a paper sheet from a paper roll having a core. The dispenser can have a spindle made of two separate sleeves. The sleeves are inserted in opposite ends of the core and frictionally retained therein. A support is rotatably mounted in one sleeve to support the roll. A brake member is rotatably mounted in the other sleeve and selectively cooperates therewith to brake rotation of the roll on the support.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,377 to A. K. Chalmers discloses an animal waste plastic bag dispenser which stores a cylindrical roll of bags in a rotatable manner. A central core receives the roll rotatably, and is fixed between top and bottom plates. A cutting blade is disposed between the top and bottom plates to facilitate the separation of bags from the roll seriatim. A device compresses the end of the roll of plastic bags thereagainst, to prevent or limit free rotation of the roll of plastic bags when the device is transported. After a bag is separated from its roll for use in retrieving and confining refuse, such as animal waste, the bag can be attached to the dispenser thereby establishing the user to transport a used bag to a place of disposal. In addition, the dispenser includes a device for restraining an animal during a cleanup operation so as to prevent the animal from interfering with the operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,956 to W. R. McTaggart discloses a dispenser for rolled sheet material comprising a base, with a mandrel having a free end projecting from the base. The mandrel is receivable in the core to rotatably support the roll of material. A brake mechanism carried by the mandrel responds to longitudinally inwardly directed pressure on the free end of the mandrel by frictionally engaging the core to retard rotation of the roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,136 to S. V. Othman discloses an invention that relates to a paper roll holder with a brake for dispensing use of paper rolls or the like. The paper roll holder comprises a heavy base to which two column-like parts are fixed, against which the paper roll rests and in between which the paper runs and which at their ends have suitably shaped cutting edges or serration, if the paper web is not perforated. A split ring member including ring and wedge-shaped parts as well as a cover with a spring fixed to it are mounted in bearings to the column-like parts and a spring fixed to the base are all pressing the paper roll against the column-like parts. The form, roughness and weight of the cover and column-like parts the split ring member and the the spring forces of the springs are chosen so that by pulling the paper it easily unwinds but the paper breaks off with a little jerk using only one hand. In the roll holder also, paper rolls without a core can be used and then springs in the cover and base are not needed, or the holder can be built without the split ring member, in which case only the springs press the paper roll against the column-like parts. The holder is normally placed on the table but can also, by transforming the base, be fixed to the wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,141 to M. S. Kanbar discloses a holder for a paper towel roll in which wound about a tubular core is a band of absorbent paper sheeting divided by perforation lines into a series of interconnected towel sections. The roll is rotatably supported by the holder to permit a user to unwind the leading towel section from the roll and tear it off. To facilitate extraction of a single towel section from the roll without causing it to further unwind, a stop element is provided. The element is formed by a cap and a plug projecting therefrom, the plug being received in one end of the tubular core whereby the cap then abuts an end of the roll. In operation, as the user with one hand tears off the unwound leading section of the roll, with his other hand presses the cap of the stop element to arrest rotation of the roll and further unwinding thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,687 to I. Liu discloses an easily tear-off tissue holder including a base, a shaft connected with and standing on the base, a fix rod connected with the shaft and having a slide hole for an upper small diameter connect rod of the shaft to fit and move up and down therein, and a press member connected on top of the fix rod to press down the fix rod and an elastic cylindrical member. When the press member is pressed down the fix rod and the elastic cylinder member, the elastic cylinder member with vertical slots and of narrow strips defined by every two neighboring vertical slots may elastically bend diametrically outward to push an inner wall of a cylindrical shaft of a coil tissue to stop the coil tissue immovable for easily tearing off a proper length of the tissue, by which the coil tissue may not be smeared in tearing off action.
Although the aforementioned prior art have contributed to the development of the art of dispensing a dispensing a sheet material from a roll, none of these prior art patents have solved the needs of this art.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for dispensing a sheet material from a roll that overcomes the problems of the prior art and provides a significant contribution to the dispensing art.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for dispensing a sheet material from a roll incorporating a magnetic force in association with a stop for inhibiting rotation of a roll of sheet material on a shaft.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for dispensing a sheet material from a roll that provides a simple and inexpensive solution for the art of dispensing a sheet material from a roll.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for dispensing a sheet material from a roll that may be shipped in an unassembled form and be readily assembled by an operator.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed as being merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by modifying the invention with in the scope of the invention. Accordingly other objects and a full understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention, the detailed description setting forth the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.